Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 584 - 51 Freya Afraid of Spiders_1

Chapter 584: Chapter 51 Freya Afraid of Spiders_1

The giant millipede, dragging two-thirds of its body, escaped quickly into a narrow tunnel. The tunnel was just wide enough for the millipede to crawl on the ground. From its severed parts, a milky-white fluid tinged with a hint of green spurted out like a fountain, emitting a sharp, sour stench. Even in its flight, the giant millipede didn’t forget to turn its head and sporut a mouthful of black venom at the spider. The venom rained down from the ceiling onto the spider. Even the spider, deftly sidestepping, feared the venom rain. Despite the evasion, one of its legs was sprayed with venom. On its slender leg, a puff of green smoke immediately rose, and the terrifyingly sturdy leg, corroded by the venom, turned into a puddle of black water in an instant. The ground where the venom had splashed became uneven.

But the giant spider doesn’t care. This creature molts several times a year, and naturally regrows its legs during the molting period. It didn’t chase after the millipede. The crack it had escaped was too narrow for the spider. Therefore, using its seven legs, it moved all over the still writhing portion of the millipede, wrapping a third of the millipede’s body in threads. Throughout the process, its gem-like eyes were still constantly rotating as though searching for the adventure team, but apparently, it didn’t succeed. The Concealment Array flawlessly concealed the whereabouts of the six people. Especially when all six of them were still, even if its legs could clearly sense the vibrations from the ground, it couldn’t judge if they were still hiding nearby because the ground wasn’t as good at transmitting vibrations like the spider web.

After finishing wrapping the remains of the millipede, the spider finally gave up its search for the adventure team, driven by temptation of food. Lugging the heavy body on the ground, it chose a tunnel with a width of five to six meters and went in. Even though moving with seven legs in the tunnel was a bit crowded, the giant spider still disappeared nimbly in the darkness, completely silently, just as it had suddenly appeared.

From the appearance of the giant millipede to the eventual departure of the spider, the entire process only took twenty minutes. Without having witnessed it, it would be hard to imagine that in these short twenty minutes, a life-and-death duel between strong entities had taken place in the dark tunnel. Though the result was devastating, with one grievously injured and one lightly injured, there was hardly any noise apart from the impact of the bodies hitting the ground.

It wasn’t until long after the giant spider had left that Freya sighed a sigh of relief, collapsing onto the ground soaked in sweat. She laughed bitterly, "How pathetic. Of all creatures, I only fear spiders. Not only do I refrain from touching them, I can’t even handle pictures of them. I didn’t expect to encounter such a big one here. The thought of possibly having to touch them makes me feel weak all over."

"Why would you touch them?" Catherine asked with amusement. "You are a Crystal Gunner. Your job is to provide long-range attack support. Do you plan to charge with me and Pannis for hand-to-hand combat?"

"Oh! That’s right. I’m a discharged one, I don’t need to touch them." Startled, Freya’s eyes lit up and she leapt up all of a sudden. "That was awful. I was so scared of spiders that my thoughts were all about them and I couldn’t control my brain. I kept imagining that horribly attached feeling and it was too horrible. As a result, I forgot I’m a long-distance profession."

"Mr. Ike," Catherine asked thoughtfully, "Will we encounter this kind of spider frequently on the upcoming journey?"

"Not too often," Ike replied after recalling, "There weren’t too many of these spiders in the first place, and they are mostly lazy, usually hiding in their cave, using webs at the entrance and the floating threads outside the webs to sense their prey. They rarely leave their hive to hunt actively like the one we just saw. So we only need to be careful not to touch their webs or threads. Fortunately, their threads reflect glow clear white in light, so there is no need to worry about not detecting them. There’s even more good news. These giant insects only appear in the first six layers. After that, we’ll hardly see them anymore. So, as long as we pass the first six layers quickly, we won’t have to worry about any spider problems. Actually, it’s quite normal to be scared of spiders. Some friends I know are also naturally afraid of spiders, and no one can explain why."

"Fantastic. Just a few days of endurance and I can get rid of the trouble with spiders. Freya, you don’t worry. I will use all my power not to let the spiders within one meter of you," Catherine comforted, patting on Freya’s shoulder. Then she turned to Pannis and asked, "I remember you said just now that the spider was one of the few creatures you couldn’t detect in advance? But, you told us about it before it started the attack."

"You got it wrong. I never said that," Pannis corrected. "I said I can’t hear when they moved, not that I don’t notice them at all. I don’t just depend on hearing. Don’t forget, these creatures have bad habits, they don’t like to take a bath."

"The smell, huh?" Catherine murmured and nodded her head as though understanding. She started to recall the smell around them during the encounter, "Indeed, these insects secrete a special smelly odor, which often is very strong. But how can you identify it as a spider, and not other insect-type magical beasts?"

"It’s hard to identify, so I did not mention what beast it was," Pannis replied, "But why do we need to identify them? It’s enough to know that a huge insect is spying on us from the dark. They hide so secretly and menacingly without making a sound, surely, they’re not trying to give us a surprise."

"Talk properly," Catherine rolled her eyes at Pannis. "Since that’s the case, please stay alert. As soon as any insect-type magical beast, no, any magical beast approaches us, tell me immediately, regardless of whether they have the intention to attack or not."

"Alright, alright." Pannis waved his hand lazily, "There is one in the second passage on the right. In the middle passage straight ahead there are two of the same kind, and the left, um, there’s none on the left."

"Hey, you know what I meant." Catherine glared at Pannis, "You’re obviously provoking me on purpose."

"Don’t worry, I got it." Pannis held back a laugh. Teasing the serious lady knight had become the greatest pleasure in his life. Making her at a loss whether to laugh or cry always gave him a great sense of accomplishment, "I’ll pay attention. As soon as a magical beast enters the safety distance, I’ll tell you immediately. I won’t let Freya get bitten by a spider."

"That’s better." Catherine finally nodded in satisfaction, "But you just said there are magical beasts in the passages on both sides? Even from so far away, you were able to determine their numbers?"

"Of course, I was lying to you." Pannis said as a matter of course, "I’m not a dog, how can I possibly smell that far."

"Pan! Nis!" Catherine ground her teeth, roaring angrily one syllable at a time, "Enough is enough."

"Don’t mind them." Freya had already regained her calm. She took out some no-cook food from her backpack and placed it on the spread-out tablecloth. Her graceful food arrangement truly matched her stature as a princess of the City of Knowledge. In a completely unfamiliar environment, it is best not to choose a cooking method that produces a distinct smell without thoroughly exploring the surroundings. The best method is to directly eat preserved food in order to avoid attracting uninvited guests with the aroma. After preparing this, Freya smiled, "Mr. Ike, since we decided to start exploring from the eighth floor, is there a path that can quickly reach the eighth floor?"

"There is definitely no direct route to the eighth floor. This isn’t a man-made building with stairs conveniently built for easy access." Ike shook his head, "But we can take the fastest path. At our current speed, we can reach the eighth floor in at most two days."

"Oh?" Freya asked with interest, "Can you let us know the path we are going to choose?"

"Of course." Ike rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a stack of thick parchment. He spread them out on the ground with the help of Freya and Lina’s shoulder lamps and introduced them one by one, "Look, this is the surface tunnel, and this is where we are. The passage on the left is the path taken by the giant spider earlier, and the one slightly to the right in front is where the giant millipede fled. We choose the fourth on the right, yes, this one. This passage spirals down and goes directly to the second floor of the underground cave, yes, you guys pointed to this one."

"Crunch, crunch," Pannis, who survived from Catherine’s attack, took out a strange-looking green vegetable which he’d bought in Grand Highland City, "Hmm, indeed the entrance to the third floor isn’t far, only about a kilometer away. If we go by the route, it can take up to two kilometers. Crunch, crunch. But, is this map drawn to scale? If it is, then the width of that tunnel might not be so fun."

"Ha, I almost forgot you’re also experienced in reading maps. Yes, that tunnel is indeed narrow, but it’s enough for us to pass through, even for this lady."

"Ahem." Freya coughed dryly, as if she hadn’t heard him, "What happens after we reach the third floor? How do we navigate thereafter?"

"The third floor is somewhat troublesome." Ike wisely ceased making comments about physical sizes, "We have to circle the third floor—a journey of nearly thirty kilometers. The first night will probably be spent at this level. After passing it, we’ll enter the fourth layer through this crevice here. It gets easier after that, as crossing each layer only takes a maximum of two hours. As you can see, we’ll follow here, here, here, and here, all the way down to the entrance to the eighth level. In fact, each level has many entrances, but I’ll pick the safest and closest one according to our needs. After all, we don’t need to explore the first seven layers, so there’s no need to take the long way around."(To be continued. If you like this novel, please vote to recommend it at qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)